This invention relates generally to devices used to block or chock vehicle wheels to prevent movement of the vehicle during the changing of tires or when performing maintenance on the vehicle.
According to the Consumer Protection Agency, every year there are thousands of accidents involving jacks, jack stands and hoists. It is the Inventor's belief that a large portion of such accidents are related to a person's failure to properly brace the wheels of a vehicle while changing tires or working on the vehicle. This failure is probably most often due to the inability of the vehicle owner to find something to chock the wheels. Since vehicles are not sold with or provided with chocks or wheel blocking devices, a person must use rocks or pieces of wood to keep the vehicle from moving or rolling. The use of rocks or wood usually is unsafe and often proves inadequate. Thus, a need exists for such a device which can chock wheels and be easily stored with the jack and spare tire in the vehicle.
In general, the prior art does include some wheel chocks or blocks. For instance, chocks consisting of two wedge-like pieces of wood or metal attached together by a rope are commonly used in chocking the wheels of aircraft. Unfortunately, these wedge-like pieces are not easily stored and often cannot be found when needed. Prior patents also show some wheel blocks and chocking devices. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 1,712,645 by Blakely shows a chocking device that has three pieces which interconnect to form a chocking device. U.S. Pat. No. 1,621,504 by Goodspeed shows a two-piece chocking device. Other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 1,712,644, again by Blakely; U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,651 by Garrett, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,325 by Mountz; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,700,077 by Harder all show different types of wheel chocking assemblies. Although many of these patented devices are collapsible for storage, none has the same design or the same means for assembly and disassembly, or can be and stored in a manner as easily as the instant invention.